An Excuse to Catch Horses
by Pseudo Twili
Summary: Sometimes the princess and hero need to take a break from their many and varied duties. Fortunately, they have some friends to make sure they do just that. A post-Calamity tale.


_The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and all its characters and places belong to Nintendo. The events here following come from my imagination, however, so please do not copy without permission._ _This story was a gift for my sister's birthday, because she spends her spare time catching wild horses in BotW as I do fishing in other games. This is all yours, dear one!_

"Who needs to do stuff when you can catch horses?" ~my sister

* * *

 **An Excuse to Catch Horses - by Pseudo Twili**

"…But the princess won't like this. She's always busy."

The protest came from the hero in Champion's blue. Facing him were two young, gray-haired Sheikah girls. The one who appeared to be younger was standing on a chair she'd pushed into the doorway, her hands on her hips as she stared down the hero, her nose about three inches from his. The other girl, with her hands clasped nervously over her chest, had the softly feminine expression of one who would be loath to kill even a beetle that intruded in her home.

"You have to do it, Linky. Kidnap her if you have to! I'll never forgive you if you don't!"

"Master Link, if I may say, I think the princess will be glad. Perhaps not right away, but when she has a chance to relax I think she'll thank you."

His eyes, as blue as the early morning sky and with a certain weariness lingering in their depths, moved between the two girls. Purah stuck out her lower lip in childish fashion, matching her youthful form. Her crimson eyes were fixed on him with the intensity of someone who knew how to get her way. Paya, realizing how brash she thought she was being by forcing him into doing something, blushed and looked at her feet.

Link sighed. "You won't give me any peace until I agree, will you?"

"You got that right, Linky!" Purah replied, a grin splitting her round face as she crossed her arms.

"All right, I'll do it, I'll do it. But if the princess wants to know whose idea this was, I won't spare her the details."

A relieved look came over Paya's face, even as a smile tugged at her lips. She lowered her clasped hands, looking shier than before, if that was even possible. "I'll make sure that a couple of baskets are prepared. You and the princess will have the nicest picnic you can imagine!"

The Hylian Champion mumbled something, grunted a couple of words that might or might not have been thanks, and then quit the room. Paya, who'd been standing by her aunt and aiding her somewhat in blockading the hero into the princess's old study, scuttled out of his way. He'd been there because of a message he had thought was from the princess but turned out to be a piece of clever feminine subterfuge.

"Success!" Purah chortled as she climbed down from the chair. "I knew we could do it."

"I feel bad about forcing him into it though," Paya admitted quietly. "Do you think he's angry with us?"

"Linky?" Purah waved her hand. "Oh, he's just a big softie. He never could refuse a favor, especially from a couple of pretty girls like us."

The breath held in by the other young lady escaped in a soft sigh. "I'd better go down to the kitchens now and arrange for their favorite foods." Paya turned to go but stopped mid step. "Thank you for your help, Auntie. I'm afraid I wouldn't have had the courage to confront him on my own."

"Oh, I liked doing it!" Purah admitted with another chuckle. "I admire the princess for wanting to keep the reconstruction going, but all work and no play will make an old lady of her before her time. She needs a day to relax."

"Grandmother will be happy when we tell her. She tries not to let me see, but I know she's been so worried about both of them." The worried tilt of Paya's eyebrows eased up and her smile became more pronounced and twice as pretty. "I am so glad Master Link agreed to it. Now they'll both have a break from their duties."

~O~

"Link, for the last time, why are we down here?" the princess demanded. She stopped in her tracks and placed her hands on her hips. "I'm not going a step further until you explain yourself."

The hero turned from working out the knot in a mooring rope. Both his eyebrows and his mouth twisted down, his expression like that of a puppy that had just been caught doing something naughty. He stared back at Zelda as if he was trying to figure out how to evade her and answer her at the same time.

The sounds of the dock workers shouting as they went about their work and the creaking and groaning of the cargo as it was unloaded almost drowned out the soft sound of the water lapping the pilings and falling back. Though Zelda and Link were at the far side of the dock, where they were not in the way, some of the workers noticed her presence and invariably bowed if their loads were not overly burdensome. The princess tried hard not to let the activity and the noise distract her from keeping her knight's gaze. She pressed her lips together firmly, determined that he would not squirm out from under her inquiry.

"It's important," he said at last.

"I know. You already told me that," the princess retorted immediately. She took a long breath and counted to five. "But what is it? Is something wrong? You're making me worry, Link."

He dropped the rope scarcely before the words were fully out of her mouth. His feet ate the distance between them in a mere second. He stood before her, his expression woefully contrite.

"I'm sorry. I did not mean to worry you, Princess. Nothing is wrong. It's only…" He stopped, chewing at his lip.

"Yes?" she prodded him.

"You'll see if you come with me."

He held out his gauntleted hand. Zelda looked from it to his eyes, which were tense and silently pleading, almost desperate. Her face softened, even as her stubborn resolve did. When had she even been able to refuse that gaze? She never had once they'd made peace with each other all those years ago; when they had been at odds she had simply refused to look him straight in the eye.

"All right," she said, but she wasn't about to let herself be taken so easily. "I'll have you know there are at least a dozen other things I should be doing right now… I will come, however."

Link's face relaxed, his mouth easing up at the corners. He extended his hand a bit further, just to the edge of her personal space. She looked down at it as a resigned sigh escaped her parted lips. Glancing up at him again, she reached forward and placed her fingers over his palm.

He still seemed rather tense as he led her to the edge of the dock and handed her into the rowboat he'd been attempting to untie just moments before. As she settled onto the aft seat, he made quick work of what remained of the knot and then stepped carefully into the boat, placing one hand on the top of one of the pilings for support. Drawing the mooring rope after him, he then took up the oars and maneuvered the small vessel out of the underground docks and into the open air.

Zelda scrutinized him for several moments, hoping she could glean something from his demeanor. However, Link's returned gaze remained even and emotionless; he seemed to be more relaxed even though he was exerting himself with rowing. Knowing she wasn't going to figure out the mystery by staring at him, she turned her attention to their surroundings and even as she did her heart swelled with the glad feeling of just being alive.

They were well into the castle's moat by that time, and with both the current and the hero's rowing they were moving at a fair clip. The wind caressed Zelda's hair, whispered in her ear, tickled her face, and sometimes dipped into the water and blew droplets up at her. Ahead of her was one of the five giant pillars which now glowed with a serene blue. To her right stretched the steep side of the hills that rose up north of the castle. Her world was filled with the rushing sound of the water as it made its race for the ocean. She leaned over the side of the boat and gazed into the clear rippled depths, a slight smile coming to her lips as she glimpsed a school of fish. She stretched out her fingers to try and touch them, but they sensed something foreign and darted away.

Then she met the distorted, watery eyes of her reflection and her mirth seemed to wither like grass choked with Malice. The submerged princess seemed to regard Zelda mockingly, lips twisted into a frown. She was the princess and had the somber duty of rebuilding not only the castle but the whole of Hyrule! Why was she leaving her duties for something that for all she knew was little more than a wild cucco chase? What sort of princess left her subjects to do their work alone as she was now doing?

She drew both her gaze and her hands back into the boat, folding the latter miserably on her lap. Her breakfast from an hour ago felt sour in her stomach and the thought that she was shirking her duty echoed over and over in her mind. Had she not been in a boat in the middle of a deep and rushing river, she would have fled back to the castle. Her eyes stung with tears that she did not allow herself to shed.

"You're not running away," Link said, abruptly cutting through the vicious circle of her thoughts.

She snapped her head up, convinced that he had just read her mind. "Wh-what?" she stammered, hating how ineffectual and un-princess-like she sounded to her own ears.

He nodded slowly. "You work harder than anyone. You deserve a day for yourself."

"You're just saying that," she countered, unable to believe, to accept that his words were quite true.

She realized he had ceased rowing and that he leaned slightly forward on the oars. He beheld her with a somber, deeply understanding sort of gaze. She could get lost in those eyes as easily as she could in her research.

"I never lie to you, Princess."

Zelda blinked once, twice, three times. Unable to match his gaze, which was somehow steely and soft at the same time, she turned her head to the side. She gnawed at her lip, her eyes dimly seeing the far horizon; she said nothing more. Link began rowing again and she could feel his eyes on her occasionally, but as she was still trying to sort out her emotions she did not look his way.

After passing through the narrow channel to the right of the great pillar, they arrived at a small, natural shelf that jutted outward slightly from the rock face. Link leaned over and braced an oar on the ground so that the princess could climb out without threatening to capsize the small vessel. They were in the shadow of the great rock wall and as Zelda stepped onto dry land, the water looked darker and deeper than it had moments before when they'd been in the sunlight. She shuddered, for dark and foreboding waters had always given her a chill.

The hero hopped next to her and after fastening the boat's mooring rope, he turned briefly to the young woman. She still didn't know what she was supposed to say to him, so she began climbing the narrow steps which had been carved directly in the side of the rock. Climbing to such a height made her feel a little giddy but she had no fear of falling to the water below. Her steps were sure and true; had they not been and she somehow managed to foolishly tumble off that perishing rock face, she had no doubt her knight would risk everything to save her. He was always like that.

Her breath came quicker by the time she mounted the last few steps. The world suddenly seemed to open up now that she was at the top. Instead of brushing against a wall of rock on one side and having a lot of air on the other, she now faced much greenery and flowers, with a grassy knoll and an assortment of bushes just beyond. A bit to her left was the Royal Lab; seeing it put a spring in her step as she hastened toward it. Much of it was still in the sad state as were many of the ruins around Hyrule, but she and Purah had made some effort in beginning its restoration.

The place was nearly deserted, however, as she quickly found out. Only a couple of workmen were hammering away at the roof and nearly fell from it in their surprise and subsequent bows to her. She bade them go on with their task, adding to that a smile and her thanks for their labors.

"I was hoping Purah would be here," she said as she heard Link's quiet step behind her. She turned to him and what she saw made her eyebrows go up. "Why, what is that?"

"Picnic hampers," he replied, and though his mouth gave her the impression of a smile, his eyes still had a worried look about them.

Zelda's green eyes sparked as she beheld him bearing, seemingly without much effort, the two hampers and a smaller basket. Unless he had discovered some technological or magical way to hide those rather cumbersome items, he obviously had not carried them up from the boat. With that insight into his actions, she realized something else and she wasn't sure whether to laugh or scold him.

"Purah put you up to this, didn't she?" she accused him. She forced her lips into a frown.

"She may have had something to do with it," he replied slowly, evasively.

"Both of you will hear more from me later," she said, and then she let the stern, princess-like regality slide from her face. "Anyway, where are you taking me?"

Now his eyes leaped with something Zelda could almost call mischievousness. "Up to Lindor's Brow."

"Well at least let me carry something," she insisted, and stretched forth her hand to do just that.

He held back, shaking his head.

"I'll take that basket. And don't you protest, Link. If we'd traveled on the road like most people do, then we could have taken our horses. But since you brought me here you're going to have to let me help you."

She tugged at the handle of the small basket, which he finally relinquished when he determined that she wasn't to be swayed. The princess tucked it over her arm and though she was pretty sure where they were going, she took a quick glance at her Sheikah slate. She knew Link wouldn't even need a map after his explorations through the wilds, but she wanted to find her own way and didn't want him to have to correct her—the latter was something that had happened before.

She started off, knowing her knight was to her side and just behind her; she could hear his breaths coming harder with the exertion of carrying the supplies for their picnic. Whenever she left the castle and sometimes when she did not, he always accompanied her, no matter how many times she told him he needn't do so. After a little while she made no more suggestions that he might think about ceasing to be her faithful knight, because when she did a sad, lost look always came to his face.

She had realized what a comforting thing it was to have another human being close to her, someone who was friend, who knew what it was like to be living in an age long past their own, someone who understood her without her having to speak. She knew that with him she didn't have to make believe that she always knew what she was doing. She was the princess everyone looked to, expecting her to shoulder the burden and rebuild Hyrule; he was her hero who, without question, accepted some of those burdens for his own.

Silence persisted between them as they made their trek, both because they had many thoughts weighing on their minds, and because they were traveling uphill. By the time they arrived at the crest of what was known as Lindor's Brow, Zelda was warm and perspiring. She lifted her face toward the sky to meet the breeze that came to cool her. The sun was hot upon her shoulders but still she smiled.

That day she had been expecting to endure the tedium of meetings, making peace between differing groups of workmen, hearing the grievances of her citizens, be hassled by some ladies about changes in her wardrobe, and many other seemingly unending tasks. Now that she was away from it she couldn't imagine anything else but the sun, the blue sky, the birds that sang as if to pay her honor, the wind in the trees, and the opportunity to do exactly as she pleased.

She turned, expecting to see her knight struggling with the hampers. Her eyes widened because he was not there; however, she relaxed again as she glimpsed him by a formation of great rocks sticking into the hillside. She joined him in the shade provided by the rocks, and set her basket next to the hampers he had already deposited there. She smiled softly as Link stretched the kinks out of his muscles.

Lifting her eyes, she stared up at the formation above them. The large, pale-colored rocks were curious indeed, for they appeared to have been one rock that was split into three, by whatever tremendous force of nature or creature she could not determine. The gap left between these rocks was more than wide enough for any person to stretch himself lengthwise on the ground. A fox scurried out from one of the other entrances and she supposed it was a haven for many animals at different times.

"Are you hungry?"

Zelda turned from her somewhat scientific examination of the rock. "Oh, I don't think I could eat now," she said, wiping her dusty fingers on her trouser legs. "Oh, but don't let that stop you if you are," she added with a little smile in his direction.

She pretended not to notice when he swiped a rather large meat pie from one of the hampers. She lifted her eyes to the sky again; the softly blue expanse, the dainty white clouds, the faint whisper of the wind made something within her itch to be let free.

"Now that you've brought me here I feel like exploring or trying to climb these rocks, or… I don't know… I feel like doing _something_."

"I might know of something."

She scrutinized him carefully. He was actually beaming; that mischievous glint had returned and was this time unmistakable in his eye. When he was busy being her knight he was usually very serious and driven to fulfilling his duty; she was almost sure he was terrified of crowds. When they were alone or amongst a small group of friendly faces did he ever appear to be so relaxed and so much like a normal person.

"What?" she queried back, feeling the excitement mount within her.

"Want to catch some horses?"

~O~

Link motioned her to crouch in the grass before she even glimpsed the wild horses. He had long since finished eating the meat pie, leaving naught but a few tiny crumbs which a sparrow or field mouse might find. He pressed a finger against his lips and gestured to a small boulder protruding through the blades of grass. She was to stay there, where the slant of the rock would give her cover and a fine vantage point. He put his finger to his mouth again and then he left her, moving stealthily through the green grass that swayed in the wind.

Zelda peeked over the edge of her rock and finally saw the horses, grazing some dozens of yards downhill from where she was. There were four of them and they were all unique in the combination of colors in hide and mane. One of the horses, one that was black with a silver-blue mane, was a bit larger than the others and seemed to be the leader. Whenever the black horse moved to another spot, the others soon followed.

She could see the top of Link's head, but only because of her slight height above him. He was moving slowly, carefully and silently through the grass and other occasional foliage. She was sure she would have been hard pressed to spot him had she not been looking for him. She guessed that to him it seemed to take a long time to get close to the horses, but for her, slightly mesmerized with watching his progress as she was, it didn't seem that way.

Then he reached the cluster of horses and Zelda lifted herself a little higher in her anticipation. The horse closest to him was a dark brown with a creamy mane and it was to the back of that beautiful creature that he leaped with a sureness that betokened extensive experience. The other horses churned up clods of dirt as they scattered in three different directions. As the princess watched, her heart in mouth, he clung to the horse's back while it bucked and twisted. He clutched at its mane and alternatively patted its neck in soothing motions.

She was almost too terrified to watch but she simply couldn't tear her eyes away. Twice she thought he would be flung from the horse like a rag doll and she raised both hands to press them against her mouth to keep from crying out. However, he remained attached to the animal's back as if he'd been permanently glued to its hide.

With one last, vicious kick of its legs, the horse ceased its bucking. Though it still behaved antagonistically to its new rider by lifting a hoof as though it wanted to kick, or reaching its head back with teeth showing, Link continued with his soothing motions as he urged the horse at a slow pace, going in loose circles. Then he guided the horse toward the spot where Zelda waited. As he approached, she stood to meet him, stepping away from the rock, her eyes wide and her face flushed.

"That was almost the most terrifying thing I've seen you do! I was afraid you'd be killed," she scolded him. She eyed the horse and it stared back at her in quite an unfriendly manner. She didn't want to go too near it unless she was sure it wouldn't bite her. "Oh, but it was amazing to watch you! How did you manage to hang on?"

His eyebrows dipped quizzically. "Er…" he stammered as he stroked the animal's neck again. "I just hold on…that's all."

"Would she bite me if I were to come near?"

"She's still a bit fractious but if you approach slowly and speak gently I think she'll warm up to you."

Zelda's eyes left the hero and settled on the brown horse. The animal still seemed to view her suspiciously, warily, but with a commanding rider on her back she stayed as she was. The princess made her steps slow as she neared the beautiful creature, saying softly, "Good girl. Good girl. No one's going to hurt you. Don't be afraid." She continued with those soothing words as she reached rather tentatively to stroke the side of the mare's head.

Link reached for something in the pouch he always carried on his belt. "Here. She'll really like you if you give this to her."

The princess could remember doing a similar thing all those years before and she wondered for the moment if Link did. She accepted the sweetly scented apple and held it below the horse's nose. The mare snuffed at it warily and Zelda kept still.

"Go on, girl, eat it. It's all right," she murmured.

The mare sniffed at it again and seemed to decide it wasn't a ruse devised by the humans. She chomped half of it in one bite. The princess beamed as the horse ate the remaining half from her hand. She giggled and stroked her head again; the mare lifted her nose toward her as if searching for more.

"May I ride her, Link?" she queried eagerly. "I think she likes me now. Do you have another apple?"

"I have a few more," he replied. "But we should save them for the other horses."

"Other horses? You mean we're going to catch more of them?!" she exclaimed, snapping her eyes up to meet his.

He nodded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Why stop at catching one wild horse when there were others to tame as well?

He swung one leg over the horse's back, dropping solidly to the ground, and he slowly loosed his grip on the lengthy and matted mane. He gestured to Zelda and leaned over, cupping his hands and folding himself in just such a way to boost her in mounting the magnificent creature.

"Are you sure?" she questioned, holding back.

The horse seemed to sense her nervousness too, as she stomped and shifted her feet in what seemed a threatening manner. Link stroked the animal's side, whispering a few words.

"It's all right," he assured the princess quietly. "If you want to try riding her now, then you can try catching the next horse yourself."

Her eyes widened. "You think so?" She saw his beaming smile and acknowledged it with one of her own. "Okay, I'll try it."

A moment later she was straddling the horse, grasping her mane, patting her neck, and saying something to her every so often. Her first instinct was to grip fiercely at the mare's sides with her legs but when the horse moved suddenly beneath her, she gave a little gasp and instantly threaded her fingers further into the mane. The horse went no more than a step, however, as Link seized her head and held her. At that moment nothing was quite so comforting as having the hero just inches from her as he stood at the animal's side.

"I'm sorry, my lady," he said, gazing up into her frightened face, his own features concerned and self-remonstrative. "I should have told you what to do. You see, if you squeeze your legs that way, the horse will instinctively want to move faster."

Zelda could hear the beat of her heart thundering in her ears, warmth coming to her face. She wasn't sure if it was embarrassment at having made such a novice mistake, or because she was all too cognizant of how he had addressed her.

Before the Calamity, he had respectively kept his references to her as would any faithful knight. This irked her, as she thought he was throwing her title back in her face to show her what a failure she was. When their friendship began to unfold like the many petals to a fragrant, exquisite flower, she heard him with new ears, realizing that the reverence with which he pronounced her title was each time a promise to protect her, to help her, to be her knight to the very end. Because she was so familiar with using his name and thought that such formality was unnecessary when they were alone, she had entreated and cajoled him to drop "Your Highness" for something friendlier, more personal. He acquiesced after a fashion, though she later told herself she should not have been surprised. At least calling her "Princess" was a step in the right direction.

However, in that field littered with the husks of battered Guardians and crawling still more with those that were alive with the malice of Ganon corrupting their circuits, when a bruised, battered, bloodied Link, scarcely able to stand, pushed her behind him, he had called her something else in a tone laced with all the pain and desperation of the moment and with a deep emotion behind them. The memory of that moment remained ever with her through the mutual imprisonment of herself and Ganon in Hyrule Castle. After it was all over she had to wonder if Link remembered it too, and now, finally, she knew.

She realized that she'd been staring at him all that time but hadn't heard a syllable he'd said. Forcing those many burbling thoughts to a corner of her mind where she could later draw them out for some lengthy and not altogether scholarly examination, she focused her attention on the words of her knight. He was telling her how she should let her legs hang naturally against the horse's side, to hold her heels lower than her toes, as if they were in stirrups, and to sit a little closer to the horse's shoulders than she would if she were in a saddle.

"Won't it be hard to stay on?" she queried, both hands full of scraggly mane as she resisted the urge to clutch with her knees.

"It will be at first," he admitted. His hands never left the horse's head, a reassuring thing for the princess. "You have to stay on by learning to balance, to move in tune with every step she takes. We'll go slowly so you can get a feel for it."

The shadows of the trees inched along the ground as the hero led the horse to a fro, through the grass and over rocky soil. Gradually Zelda came to feel more relaxed on the back of the horse, though her nervousness mounted considerably again when Link suggested that she try it alone.

"You can do it," he said.

With one last pat, he freed the mare's head and mane and stepped back. Zelda immediately froze; beneath her the horse seemed to sense her discomfort and lack of control and shifted her hooves as if she was thinking of bucking again. Against all Link's instructions, she was starting to grip the horse with her knees again, and she glanced at the hero as if to plead for him to rescue her. He nodded slightly, fixed his eyes on her and inhaled, visibly, deeply.

Zelda took several deep breaths as well, realizing that she was not alone in her nervousness and trepidation. Stretching forth her hand, she again stroked the horse's neck, saying, "It's all right, girl. I'm sorry I made you nervous. Let's work at this together and show Link what we can do!"

She let several more seconds pass her by while she soothed the animal and tried to garner her courage. Her heart still beat in her chest like the thundering of hooves as she dug her heels just slightly into the horse's side. She started forward in a slow walk and the princess very nearly tensed up again, but Link's instructions came back to her again and she let herself move as the horse did.

Her confidence grew the more she rode. Sometimes the horse was wont to stray off to the side, still showing a fractious tendency, but she was sure to firmly guide her back to the line in which they were traveling and to praise her when she was obedient. The mare's errant turns were becoming fewer and Zelda's sureness in herself and her mount was rising. She had never before felt a horse's muscles rippling at every step she took, an experience which made her appreciate all the more what majestic, mighty creatures they were.

She felt as though she'd hardly begun to enjoy herself when Link stepped up and guided the horse to stop. He seemed to Zelda to have popped up from nowhere, for she'd been so caught up in the connection with her mount that she'd noticed naught else, even the wind stirring the horse's mane and the sun on her hair.

"Oh, Link! That was exhilarating!" she cried, too excited and happy to come up with a better way of expressing herself.

He understood perfectly, however. He grinned in a way that seemed to tell her very simply, "I know."

She knew what was coming next and she was torn between that and wanting to ride the brown horse more. She sighed, swung one leg over her mount's neck and slipped easily from her back. Taking the mare's head in both her hands, she pressed her face close.

"Thank you for the ride, friend. We've learned much from each other, I think, and now it's time for me to say goodbye," she whispered.

She kissed her, and the horse's ears flickered. Then the young woman turned abruptly and began to march away. She'd gone only a few yards when she became aware of a touch at her elbow. She was sure Link was following her, but it was peculiar that he was quite so close. She spun around and it was as if she hadn't moved at all, for the brown horse was there, thrusting her nose into her face. She pushed her away and put her hands on her hips.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, raising her tone as if she expected the mare to be able to respond.

The horse cocked her head, reminding Zelda of a certain pup with whom she'd made great friends back when the castle was in its prime. She'd often wondered what became of that dog who'd sometimes trailed after her and her appointed knight. The horse's refusal to leave her was just like the unerring faithfulness of the man who she'd see if she only looked up. The spark of annoyance which had sparked to life in her chest rose and escaped through her mouth.

"I told you to go. You're free, so go! Leave!"

She pushed her away much harder this time and when the mare did not get the message, the princess picked up a handful of soil. She made believe she was going to throw it, causing the horse to trot away. She hated the way tears sprung to her eyes as she watched her lope off and kept turning back to look at her. Throwing the dust back to the ground, Zelda spun on her heel, unable to bring herself to gaze upon her further.

Hearing Link's boot crunch on a pebble, she raised her head, refusing to look at him just yet. "Where did the other horses go?" she asked, her lips taut.

He pointed to the spot where the horses had been grazing before he caught the brown one; she followed his finger and saw the other three were back as if they'd never been scared away in the first place.

"Are you ready?" he queried quietly.

The princess nodded and pressed her lips firmly together. She wore the same determined expression that she had assumed ever since she was a little girl, which her mother playfully called "my Zelda's stubborn face."

Link gave her a few instructions on what she should do and then they sneaked through the grass. They were some yards from the wild horses when he stopped and motioned with his hand that she should keep going. He lowered himself closer to the ground and inclined his head toward her, smiling; she knew he was telling her she would do just fine. She inhaled deeply and crept forward.

Of the three horses left, Link had pointed out the one with an off-white mane and a hide the pale color the horizon sometimes was when the sun was about to come up. While the other two animals would occasionally lift their heads and look around, the third horse was not so concerned. Zelda made one great leap for its back, half afraid that she would miss altogether, but she was astride the horse and twining her fingers into its mane before it quite knew what was happening. It jumped forward several steps and acted like it was going to bolt, but she got it to stop with surprisingly little effort on her part.

"What's the matter with this horse?" she questioned of the hero who jogged in her direction. She put one hand on her hip and glared at him suspiciously. "It put up no fight at all!"

"This one is gentle. The others are all wild. The gentle ones are easier to mount and to control. That's why I wanted you to catch this one."

Zelda all but fell from the horse in her haste to dismount. She slapped its rump and sent it bolting for a short distance, whereupon it seemed to have found some particularly delectable grass and stopped to munch it before the other horses returned. The princess faced her knight fully, her green eyes snapping with the kind of authority that faintly reminded Link of seeing in a pair of similar eyes one hundred years before.

"I do not want a gentle horse!" she declared fiercely. "I want to catch a wild horse—like the one I just learned to ride! Do you understand?"

"Yes, my lady," he replied easily, and though his face was like a serious mask, she could see the smile teasing the corner of his lips.

His mirth was catching, she knew. She rolled her eyes and turned her back to him so that he could not glimpse the silent laugh that burbled up within her. She put a hand to her mouth, pretending to cough. He strode past her, in the direction the remaining two uncaught horses had gone, and she watched him, wondering what he was next about to do.

Crouching, he crept near the horse whose coat and mane were all a deep, rich chestnut. The strange thing was that after he sprang to its back and soothed it for a few heart-stopping seconds, he made a great jump from its back and the horse kicked up dirt as it galloped away. Zelda's eyebrows crinkled as she beheld that rather bizarre behavior. The horse ran for a bit before it slowed; Link mounted it and again let the animal loose after bouncing around on its back. Then he returned to the princess.

"What was that all about?" she queried.

He nodded his head in the direction of the chestnut horse. "It's your turn now."

Zelda eyed him for a couple of seconds as she considered her answer. He was so earnest in trying to keep her from harm that her heart made a funny little leap in her chest, rather like one of those wild horses did when he mounted them. She could refuse to catch the horse and see what he might do next, but she didn't think she could bear the disappointed look in his eyes if she did.

"Very well then."

This time he stayed closer to her as they located and crept up to the chestnut horse. As she jumped to the animal's back, her heart was hammering so that both Link and the animal could probably have heard it. The horse tossed her around, but she held on with a grip of a determined young lady who had to train for ten years before her power came to her, though she was secretly glad Link was so near in case anything did go wrong.

"There! I did it!" she crowed as she turned the newly calmed horse in a half circle. "I tamed one of the wild ones! And it wasn't all your doing, Link."

He was grinning at her. "You did well."

Feeling glowingly grateful for that simple praise, she occupied herself with getting the chestnut mare to trot without taking diversions, and she was so interested in what she did that she didn't register when Link disappeared for a several minutes. Zelda looked up just in time to see him return on the back of the midnight stallion with the silver and blue mane who was the leader of that now-scattered small herd. He looked bigger somehow, sitting up so straight and riding that larger horse, she thought. He'd always had such ease around them, ever since she'd known him.

As he came abreast of her, a question escaped her lips before she thought enough to change her mind. "I've always wondered, Link… Where did you learn to ride like that?"

"My mother taught me. I rode a horse before I learned to walk," he replied slowly as he soothed his mount.

At mention of his mother, Zelda's memories of her own mother came to mind. Though some of those recollections were of great sorrow, still more were merry and filled with life; she knew she would not erase one of them, any more she'd want to be without one of her fingers. Memories were a precious thing, she reflected, something that could not be bought for anything. She fixed her eyes on her knight as he dismounted and took a couple of apples out of his pouch. He held one out to her, she accepted it and also slid to the ground.

"Do you… remember much about her?"

She was rubbing the red sheen of her apple as she put that rather tentative question. The words having left her tongue, she took a sideways peek at him. He had one hand on the side of the stallion's face and the other held an apple not quite as red or as shiny as hers. He had gone quite still and his eyes seemed to be much further away than the horse that was just reaching for the fruit. Zelda looked back to her own horse and ran her fingers soothingly over the mare and proffered her own apple. She took more glances at Link, her own smile lost as she thought that perhaps she should not have asked him that.

"Some," he said at last.

Her eyes snapped up toward him again. "I'm sorry, Link. I shouldn't have asked…"

However, he shook his head and seemed to break free from the abstraction that held him captive. He returned her gaze, saying, "You needn't be sorry, Princess." He reached into his pouch, withdrew another apple and bit into it. "You know, I remember some stories my mother told me about horses from a long, long time ago. They weren't as easy to tame and mount as these."

He patted his stallion and let the horse take a bite from the apple while it was in his mouth. Zelda giggled, partly to his antics and partly because her mare's tongue tickled her hand.

"Would you tell me some of those stories sometime? I'd like to hear them, and perhaps we can even trade tales, for I know some too."

His eyes, widening slightly and wrinkling at the corners, shifted to her again. "Of course. It would be my pleasure."

"I just realized that I am absolutely famished. Do you have any apples left?"

The hero handled her the last one and she had to take it quickly before the stallion could snatch it up. She took one bite and then offered the rest to her horse. As soon as it had vanished, she swung herself up and onto the mare's back and they started back to the rocks at the crest of Lindor's Brow.

As they approached the spot where they'd left their picnic, a pair of squirrels scampered away, which raised some concern within the princess. She hopped right off her mare and hurrying, crouched at the hampers, checking their contents. She let her breath out when she realized that the latches were still fastened and the food therein was untouched.

Leaving the horses to graze some yards away, Link came near and told her, "I feel like having some fresh meat. Will you be all right if I leave for a few minutes?"

She shook her head, almost immediately realizing that was not quite the right answer. "I will be just fine," she replied. "And I think some freshly cooked meat would go well with our picnic."

He nodded to her and, unstrapping his bow from his back, headed out of sight around the rocks. In his absence, Zelda set about unpacking the various foodstuffs that someone (she wasn't sure yet if Purah was the only one involved) had prepared for them. There were more meat pies like the one her knight had earlier taken, bread, a few pastries, little cakes, and many different dishes consisting of vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, thinly sliced pieces of meat. While she had before thought they couldn't possibly eat the contents of those hampers, after the activity of the past hours she felt rather like she could match even Link's voracious appetite.

Spreading a cloth on the ground, she then arranged the food upon it, keeping it covered from flies and any potential wild visitors that might surprise her. She didn't feel right about starting without Link, but all the smells of their waiting picnic were so teasingly tantalizing that she decided to take the same thing he had. She ate the meat pie slowly as she wandered toward the spot where the horses grazed. Zelda held something else behind her back and the mare she'd caught raised her head as she approached. The mare trotted closer while the stallion remained in his spot, watching all that went on.

"This is what you were looking for, isn't it?" the princess laughed, bringing forward two darkly orange carrots.

The mare accepted one without hesitation, but with the other Zelda had more trouble in getting the stallion to finally take it from her. And because she was out in the wilds and not in the castle's dining hall, she licked her fingers of the remnants of the devoured meat pie, in a manner not at all befitting a princess and for which her old nursemaids would have scolded her. She patted her mare and plucked some grass to feed her, searched around the immediate area for any interesting flora, and then climbed to the top of one of the three large rocks.

She was still perched there, her face lifted to the clouds, when the hero returned. His hail broke her from her thoughts, where she was afar adrift as if on an ocean. Gazing down at him, her emerald eyes immediately widened with alarm and she shot up, standing as well as she was able on that large boulder. Link, with the carcasses of three pigeons held in one hand, stopped in his tracks, his own expression sobering immediately.

"What's wrong?"

"Th-there," she said, pointing. "R-right next to you, Link! There's a wolf!"

And right then before her terrified eyes he did a most surprising thing. Instead of drawing his sword or bow, instead of jumping back or even turning his eyes toward the beast to whom she pointed, he burst out into a ridiculous and loud chortle that grew and grew until the hillside rang with the sound of his mirth. Zelda wasn't sure if she'd gone crazy and was hallucinating the whole thing, or if the hero was mad and had no care for his own safety.

The longer he laughed the redder her face became. She stamped her foot. "Link, stop that!" she shouted, slightly hysterical and more than just a little puzzled and perturbed. "What is going on?"

He stifled his laughs enough for a few words to leave his tongue as he looked up at her. "You…can come down, Princess. It's…quite safe. This is my friend."

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at him. However, the realization was slowly dawning on her that the wolf hadn't made a threatening move, was not growling, baring his fangs or otherwise making an aggressive display of himself. She watched as a still chuckling Link strode toward their picnic blanket, set down the game he'd caught, and began to search for firewood. The wolf started to follow behind, but he kept looking at Zelda as if he was expecting her to do something.

The princess slid down from the boulder and joined her knight, still a bit wary of their new companion. She knew her face was as red as a wildberry and she glared briefly at Link for making her feel silly. Her curiosity about the wolf who seemed to be as docile as a Hylian retriever and yet as unownable as the stars in the sky, was enough to make her forget all else.

"Is he tame?" she questioned as she drew near.

However, before he could quite make an answer, a little sound escaped Zelda's mouth, leaving her in a surprised, pleased gasp. When she was within a few yards of both hero and wolf, the beast left Link's side and, facing the princess, lowered himself in what could only be described as a bow. Any reserves she might have still had melted away like butter on warm toast. She went down on her knees so she could get a better look at him.

"Did you teach him to do that?" she asked, flicking her eyes toward her knight.

"No," Link replied. "Rather, he's taught me some things. And he's not at all tame. He has a wildness in his eyes, but he seems to me like a human than anything else."

As she gazed into the magnificent beast's eyes, she glimpsed therein an intelligence much beyond that which any mere wild creature might possess. Her eyes flickered to the blue loops in his grey and white ears, and then to the shackle and its few links of chain fastened to his left forepaw. She wondered it would be proper to pet him and find out if his fur was as soft as it appeared to be.

"Where did he come from?"

"I don't really know. He would just show up when I was traveling. I'd turn my head and he was there. Though this is the first time I've seen him since right before we defeated the Calamity."

"But who is he?"

"He's… a friend. I think he must be a warrior or something. I've had that feeling almost since the first time he came to me. He's a great fighter. He's better than me sometimes, and he needs no weapons."

Though her inherited power no longer flowed through her like the blood in her veins, just enough of it remained that she could feel a similar power emanating from the large wolf. She realized then that petting him would be as unwelcome as anyone giving her a patronizing pat on the head. So, with a sigh, she contented herself with examining him, in scientific fashion, merely by sight. He curled up on the ground next to her while Link fiddled with the fire and proceeded to cook the plucked pigeons.

"Do you come from another plane of existence?" she queried, her eyes on the wolf.

The blue-eyed beast's ears twitched as he nodded.

Her knight glanced at her, his eyebrows reaching upward. "…What made you ask that?" Such a question had never occurred to him.

She shrugged. "I don't know. It just came to me and I had a feeling it was right. You said he traveled with you often, right?"

Snapping his fingers back when he got them too near the flames, he nodded in her direction.

Her mouth slackened and into her eyes came a faraway look. "After you awoke, I could sense your journey, even though I was trapped in the castle. There were times that I remember sensing something—or someone—with you. I knew not what it meant, except that whatever it was seemed to be a comfort to you. I think, now…it was this wolf with you at those times."

She released a breath, feeling that with it she was also freeing herself of a demon, however small, as was always the case when she recalled and spoke about the tragedy surrounding the Calamity. She closed her eyes for a moment, opening them to find Link's gaze upon her again. His eyebrows were lowered with some concern and he seemed to have forgotten the mostly raw birds over his fire. She offered him a small smile, wordlessly compelling him to forget his worries.

Reaching down, she selected from their generous picnic a huge leaf wrapped around delectable bits of tenderly cooked mushroom, safflina, and hearty radish, glazed slightly with honey and salted generously. She scooped some of the mixture with her fingers and popped them into her mouth in a distinctly un-princess-like fashion. Then she glanced down at the wolf and offered the leaf to him. He looked at her for a moment before he snapped up a large mouthful with teeth that could easily have torn through both leaf and hand had he been so inclined.

She finished off the rest of it and selected another morsel. She giggled. "Link, you'd better come back over here or your friend and I will eat everything."

The hero's head jerked up and, with mouth slightly agape, he beheld her in a similar manner as one might stare at a drunken man who just said something ridiculous. She laughed again through a mouthful of flaky, buttery pastry and threw her head to the sky. Perhaps she was drunk—intoxicated on the freedom of being out in the wild for a moment in time when no immediate cares were pressing upon her shoulders. She could hardly believe that just hours before she had been cross with him for stealing her away from her duties.

"I could find something else for us to eat if that happens. Perhaps a few frogs?"

The sky could not have held her attention then if it was green and filled with lavender clouds. She fixed her eyes on him, noting how he seemed to be putting on a somber face, yet the corner of his mouth twitched as he tried to control it.

She shrugged. "Frogs are something of a delicacy, or so I've heard."

Laughter rippled between them, the sound riding further on the wind like the chattering of leaves or the burbles of a brook. As he joined her at their picnic cloth, Zelda persuaded her knight to recount as story he'd heard many times as a little boy, a fanciful tale of a child who wanted to find the perfect horse so much that he was blind to the fine (but not quite perfect) horses who would have gladly had him as their master. His words were punctuated with chewing and crumbs falling from his mouth, but she didn't care.

When the last word left his tongue, he reached for another sandwich and his hand collided with hers. Their eyes met and she quickly drew back, blushing even as she chuckled. Link's expression was completely at ease, a smile splitting his lips.

"Now it's my turn," the princess insisted, and forthwith began spinning the tale of a talking canine who wanted to be a knight to the reigning king.

Only a few morsels of food remained by the time she reached the end of her story. Her hunger was quite satisfied, and she would have felt almost sleepy if she wasn't keyed up after her bit of storytelling. Link had definitely consumed more than she had, she reflected, and the wolf had certainly eaten his share, especially the half-charred, half-raw meat that the hero pulled off his sorry campfire.

While she stood and stretched, Link tumbled the dishes and picnic cloths back into the hampers. She wandered around the huge boulders toward the spot where they'd left their horses, the wolf padding silently at her side. She'd saved one carrot from the bottomless void that was her knight and now she waved it under her mare's nose. The horse followed it eagerly, trotting next to a small mound of dirt where the princess allowed her to have it at last. While she chomped the vegetable, Zelda caressed her mane and told her in whispers just how precious she was.

Link joined her moments later and it seemed that he too had saved something red and round for his not-quite tamed stallion. The princess glanced at him briefly, wondering what thoughts ran beneath all that tawny hair. Her own mood had, throughout the past few hours, risen ever higher, like a balloon floating to the heavens, but now she felt like she was drifting back to the earth again. While she was wise enough to know she couldn't fly like that all the time, she wanted to hold onto the feeling for just a little bit longer.

Their excursion had been to her like a piece of the most heavenly fruitcake she could imagine. Knowing that their time was rapidly coming to a close, she almost wished she hadn't had a taste of it, but hardly had the thought occurred to her than she scolded herself for feeling sorry for herself. It was not as if she would never see a day like this again, even though she had many duties. Even if she did forget to relax occasionally, her friends would probably force her on another picnic. She rolled her eyes even as she turned her attention back to her knight.

"Link, thank you for today. It's been…so wonderful. Though I have to ask… The idea wasn't all yours, was it?"

Suddenly there seemed to be something wrong with his baldric, as both his eyes and fingers were on it.

She pressed on. "Did you think I'd forgotten my promise to have some words with you about it? Come on, Link, I want an answer."

He shook his head quickly. "I hadn't forgotten, Princess," he replied with a sigh. "If you must know, I was not alone in wanting to get you away from the castle."

"I know that, but who put you up to it? Was it Purah?" She glared at him with mock sternness, her hands on her hips, daring him to refuse her a reply.

He fingered the edge of his bracer and then raised his eyes to meet hers. "Yes… It was Purah and Paya. But I think someone else was behind them, wanting them to corner me as they did."

Zelda's fingers stilled as she ran them on her mare's head and through her mane. "Impa?"

Her knight nodded slowly and cast his eyes away, as if he believed he was betraying someone by his admission. For a moment, something burbled up within her, splitting her lips with a grin and then escaping her in a merry laugh that mushroomed until her sides ached and great happy tears flowed. She clutched at her mount, guffawing into the chestnut hide.

Link beheld her strangely all the while she giggled. "What?" he asked, a sheepish, uncomprehending look on his face.

Swiping some of the tears from the side of her nose, she giggled one last time and mounted her horse. "I'll tell you a little later," she said as she gripped the mane. Her eyes were soft and pleading. "Link, before we go back to the castle, let's have a race."

He cocked his head as he looked up at her, his hands upon his mount's neck.

"Yes, a race," she repeated at she scooted a little closer to the mare's shoulders. "I want to see how fast our wild horses can go."

"All right," he said, nodding and swinging himself up to the stallion's back.

The princess turned away from him and made her horse turn a few circles. Then she urged her into a trot, giving the mare encouraging words and a gentle pat every so often. She remembered her knight's instructions, and as they trotted down the hill her confidence soared even as her bond with her mount deepened. She took once sidelong glance at the hero, who was following her easily by a few yards, and then she dug her heels into her horse's sides.

The mare shot away, rather as if she'd been prodded with a thunderblade, and Zelda held fast to the mane, knowing that if she lost her grip on that she would also lose her balance. She was still a bit nervous and probably hung on a little tighter than she needed to, but still a faint smile found its way to her lips. She was sure Link was close behind her, however she did not dare make the risk to look back.

Down the slope of Upland Lindor they flew, her on her chestnut mare, him on his coal-black stallion, and the wolf pounding after them on his own, his tongue lolling and with a seemingly gleeful expression as if he'd done that sort of thing before. They raced along the edge of Tanager Canyon until they were nearly to Tabantha Bridge Stable. Zelda slowed her mount gradually, giving her many pats and showering her with praise. Coming to a standstill, she turned halfway back to her knight.

"I guess this means I've won," she said, her breath coming almost as quickly as that of her mare.

Pulling up alongside her, he seemed too pleased for someone who had the slower mount. "Yes, my lady. You know how to pick horses. She's one of the fastest in Hyrule."

She could feel a blush creeping to her cheeks and she hoped the warmth of her recent exertion would cover it. "And what about yours? He's not as fast, is he?"

"No, his greatest assets are his strength and endurance. That's why he was leader to the other horses."

She toyed with her mare's mane and chewed at her lip. "Link, must we leave them behind? Can't we take them back to the castle?"

"Do you think the two of us can ride all four horses back?" he questioned, his expression a veil of innocence.

Her eyebrows crinkled as she made a face at him. "No, I mean the two we're riding. Oh, but you knew that!"

The hero sat nonchalantly atop his steed, his arms splayed before him and a grin splitting his lips. The wind, which had teased and tangled his hair all that day, blew it across his face, but he didn't bother to push it away. His face was well tanned because of the many hours he spent outdoors.

"Oh…you!" she huffed, pressing her lips together. She turned quickly away from him and folded her arms, pretending she was exasperated.

Link, however, did not offer her a word, be it of apology or anything else. She heard his horse shift his stance and then her knight's soothing whispers. She was sure she could feel the hero's eyes focused upon her, as she had so many times in a century past. He knew her too well, she reflected; he knew she was neither irked or upset and he was probably also aware of how embarrassingly happy she was.

Straightening her shoulders, she tilted her head up to the sky. The sun, while it still had its grip on the day, was making its inevitable descent toward the horizon. By the time they could get back by way the roads, dusk would be casting the world with the deep shadows of the night to come.

Turning her head to her knight, she sighed. "Well, I suppose we should head back to the castle now. We wouldn't want Purah or Impa to worry and send out a search party for us."

Link brought his mount even with hers. He touched his knuckles against his forehead, all he needed to acknowledge her.

"You know what I said I'd tell you later?"

"Yes?"

A soft look was in her eyes and her lips barely curved in a smile. "You can blame all this day on me. I told Impa I was worried about you, that you were working too hard…She promised me she would find a way to get you to take a day off."

Blue sparrows suddenly took to the skies in fright as the canyon echoed with the mirth that tumbled from those two throats.

~Fin~

* * *

 _I'm trying to give myself some goals to work for in my writing. This lengthier one-shot is my contribution for this month. You can check out my profile for more details on my publishing schedule so far._

 _This story began with a little idea that Link and Zelda would go on a picnic to Lindor's Brow and there Link would show her where some of the best horses could be found. That tiny germ of an idea sat around in my head for a while, then I turned up the heat and started thinking about it more. Then I started writing it down and come up with a lot more as I did. Every story I write always turns out longer than I first intended, just because I don't imagine all the details right then and there._

 _I did not write this with the intention of trying to ship Link and Zelda. But I suppose you might see something hinting at the ship if perhaps you were to use binoculars. Hehe... I like to think their friendship is progressing at this point, where, in time, it could become something more, something precious and beautiful. After they defeated the Calamity, they both had much healing to do, as did the whole of the land which they must help to rebuild. They're young, so there's plenty of time for romance to unfurl like the many petals of a rose. Roses usually bloom late in spring, after all._

 _Anyway, now that it's over, why not take a minute or two to tell me what you thought? Was there some part you especially liked? Was the characterization adequate or lacking? Was the story too long or did it progress too slowly? Please feel free to send me a review or a PM with your feedback. I'll appreciate it!_

 _Until we meet again..._

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01-20-2019 ~ Published (10,678 words)


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